There is a professional and consumer need for an ergonomic grooming implement for pets, which enables the user to both detangle and deshed a pet's coat. Currently, professional groomers and pet owners typically have to use a number of tools in order to groom effectively. For example, a pet will be first groomed with a rake, a long toothed coarse comb, to un-mat and detangle the pet's coat, and also remove undercoat on double coated animals. Subsequently, the pet is groomed with a short toothed fine comb, such as a brush or carding blade, to collect shed hair from the top of the coat. The goal of these processes is to remove shed hair, to prevent it from otherwise soiling the household, and to also improve the appearance and sheen of the pet's coat.
However, these processes, which are performed in series, consume a significant amount of the user's time. Furthermore, the current tools for these processes are of varying efficacy because pet coat types are diverse, and often, these tools only work for a sub-set of pet coat types, and not-at-all on others. For example, a short toothed carding blade is much less applicable for pets that have a long and winding coat type, as the blade does not groom through smoothly on such breeds, and will tug on the pet's coat causing discomfort.
Additionally, many tools found in the prior art give poor ergonomic consideration to such design characteristics as the placement of the handhold and arrangement of the comb tines. This has a detrimental effect on the ease with which the user may operate the tool and consequentially, its grooming effectiveness. For example, certain tools of the prior art couple a handle to end of, and parallel to, the rows of comb tines. Users of such tools must then move their arm laterally to groom, and apply significant torque through their wrist. In addition, users may also need to appreciably rotate their wrist during a grooming motion, to best utilize all the comb rows of the tool. These arduous wrist movements detract from the tool's grooming effectiveness.
Shed hair is collected in the tool as the pet's coat is groomed. However, as the tool fills with shed hair, the performance of the tool to further collect shed hair diminishes. To continue using the tool effectively therefore, users must also frequently clean the tools, often by hand, which further consumes a significant amount of their time.
Where self-cleaning features are included in tools found in the prior art, they are often bulky and of limited efficacy. They typically comprise movable plates, where the comb tines are located in slotted holes, and are activated by a thumb button to move the plate forward to clean the tool. Given tools with self-cleaning features found in the prior art are typically driven by a thumb press, such self-cleaning tools are limited to relatively short tines.